Tenku and Korin
by Serpent and Wolf
Summary: --YST-- Hashiba Touma and Date Seiji meet for the first time, a couple of months before they meet the others. (REVISED) (Written by me)


(Author's note: In the past two or three days this fic has been up, I ahve recieved three reviews {a personal record for me, really} and one struck me and pointed out a major flaw. One that I hadn't even thought about in the hour or so it took me to write this fic. {I tend to be impulsive and it takes people pointing things out for me to set them straight.} Anyway, in their review, Melee comments both on the appearance of Shuten {perhaps not too unlikely in itself} but also the minimal damage done to the house itself and the strange calling back of him by Arago. Well, when I thought about this, it really didn't make sense even to me. So, Melee, thanks to you, I now present an updated version.)   
  
"Touma-chan, we should have called first."  
  
"Iie. There was no need."  
  
I looked at my mother, and she gave a sigh as I got out of the car. She was the only person who knew what I had been saddled with, what destiny had chosen me. Because of a fateful discovery, my entire life was changing.  
  
  
  
I had been a normal boy two months ago when I was out stargazing during a meteor shower. Lord, it was a lovely sight. I'd always been in love with seeing the open sky, and that night I learned why. As the heavenly bodies streak the sky, something small fell directly down and landed beside me in the grass. I rolled over and picked up the item. It was a small ball, about the size of a shooter in a game of marbles, that was dark blue and had the gold kanji of Wisdom on it. As soon as I touched it, I felt a warm sensation also laiden with pain. In that instance, I was also granted the knowledge of what was happening to me, and what I now was.  
  
"Yoroi no Tenku," I had whispered softly after the pain subsided. I was a warrior now. How many years had I heard the legend of the Legendary Armors and thought nothing of it? Now I was glad my family told me so much though. That told me exactly what I needed to do.  
  
I needed to find the other four armor bearers.  
  
The first one, the name revealed to me in some sort of inner calling, was Date Seiji. So I had found out that the Date family owned a small dojo just off their home. That was easy enough to find, and so there I was. Ready to go and meet the bearer of the Yoroi no Korin.  
  
I knocked on the door then, waiting for a moment, finding myself rather impatient, rather nervous. I couldn't place why then. After all, I was merely meeting a comrade. However, my armor seemed almost to be trying to tell me that this would be no ordinary meeting.  
  
"May I help you?"  
  
I looked up when the voice reached my ears, and I saw an old man, slightly bent with his many years, looking up at me.  
  
"I'm looking for Date Seiji," I replied as I politely bowed to him.  
  
"What do you want?"  
  
This voice was slightly higher than the old man's, and it held a self-important air to it. My eyes moved again, and this figure I did not greet with a bow because he did not offer me one. A single lavender eye peered at me, the other hidden by blonde hair styled in a fashion called a rose-eye. His thin features and the tight line his mouth were drawn into gave him, I thought with an inner laugh, an almost girl-ish appearance. He was dressed in fairly nice clothes, so I could see that the Date family, like the Hashiba line, were not wanting for money.  
  
"You're Date Seiji?" I asked, arching an eyebrow. There was no way this could be the ally I sought.  
  
"Unless you mean my great-great-grandfather, who has been dead for about fifty years, if not more," came the sarcastic reply, the blonde giving a haughty snort.  
  
Oh how I would have loved to smack him right then and there. The look on his face looked as though I had after I next spoke.  
  
"I'm here to speak with you about the Yoroi no Korin."  
  
He cleared his throat then, looking rather off guard for that one, soon motioning me into the room. As soon as I stepped in and removed my shoes, he led me into a back room that looked like it was often used for meditation. I had no doubt that the old man, like my mother, knew that Seiji bore the armor. The room bore the very feel of the armor about it. No doubt the man had made Seiji grow accustomed to the armor's feel here. I did the same thing in my basement where I had set up targets and the like.  
  
"How do you know about the Yoroi no Korin?" the blonde demanded suddenly as soon as the door was shut. That one eye fixed upon me, flashing slightly, looking highly suspicious about my knowledge.  
  
He eased his tension when I replied calmly, "I am Hashiba Touma, bearer of the Yoroi no Tenku."  
  
"You should have told me your name earlier, Hashiba-san," Korin no Seiji then said, a bit more respect in his voice. No doubt he, too, had been revealed my name in a dream. I thought about it for a moment. Yes... if I would have said that, he'd have known just who I was, and he probably would have handled my coming here and my question a bit more politely.  
  
"It's no trouble, Date-san," I replied calmly, he and I now exchanging the customary bows of mutual respect of a meeting.  
  
"Ah, you two boys have made your peace," the old man said with a smile as he came into the room. "Two Samurai Troopers such as yourselves should be allies." He then offered kindly, "Shall I fix you two some tea you can get acquianted for?"  
  
"Hai. That'd be nice, Grandfather," Seiji replied, bowing low to this male, and I, after nodding my agreement to the tea, followed Seiji's lead and bowed low to this man. He smiled at us and hobbled off.  
  
Seiji and I both rose. He turned to say something to me, but I never found out what. As soon as he opened his mouth, the door to the back fell open, having been broken down.  
  
Our heads snapped to the side rather quickly, that one eye of Seiji's flaring just a little at what we saw, and I narrowed my eyes at the being there.  
  
It was a soldier and yet... at the same time... it was not a man. Dark teal made up the bodice under the armor, and the plates themselves were a lighter shade of the smae color. Some silver-colored metal made up the face mask, and the face beneath it seemed almost metallic. Something like eyes peered at us, but Seiji and I both could sense that this was a Soldier of Doom, no human at all.  
  
Perhaps that's what led us to the false first impression that everything serving the Empire of Doom was no human...  
  
We didn't have much time to consider what we had to do as it lunged at us, brandishing a long weapon with a large silver blade at the end and two sickle-like ones coming off to either side and curving to run parallel to the center one. One quick look between Seiji and I was enough to confirm what we both knew we had to do.  
  
"Yoroi no Korin! Forward!"  
  
"Yoroi no Tenku! Forward!"  
  
I looked over at my fighting partner as soon as we were both in armor. The green Yoroi no Korin protected him now, though that was hardly surprising. In his hand was the slightly long hilt, topped with a gold four point star that curved down slightly, of his long broadsword, its slight outcroppings of blade not too up from where it began flashing as he moved it slightly, in the position of a well trained swordsman.  
  
The dark blue armor of Tenku sheilded my body as I fixed the golden arrow that had appeared in my right hand into the string of the same hued bow that had appeared in my left.  
  
We certainly were a sight, Seiji and I. Both ready to fight yet with minimal knowledge of how our armors truly worked. Oh well. We would give this our all.  
  
And that we did.  
  
Seiji jumped back as the minion charged at him, thorwing his body to the side. The thin wall shuddered under the impact form the rushing soldier that hadn't been able to stop in time. Seiji and I both warily looked up at the roof.  
  
"If we keep this up--"  
  
"The room will collapse. Better move this--"  
  
"Outside where we can't be crushed."  
  
I had spoken first, and I think both Seiji and I found it remarkable that we were able to finish one another's sentences. But that was merely because we both saw the danger present, I suppose. Another nod of confirmation to one another, and I moved towards the broken down door, firing an arrow at the soldier, causing its attention to direct to me. It, as we expected since it seemed to have the mental capacity of a dull dog merely obeying a command without knowing why, followed me, and Seiji tailed it.  
  
Once outside and free from the danger of being killed by a falling roof, the fight could being in earnest.  
  
I summoned another arrow and fired at the soldier while Seiji drove his sword to it. Unfortunately for us, it showed itself not as stupid as we thought when it jumped up and allowed my arrow to hit Seiji's sword and be knocked away by his blow.  
  
A soft curse left Seiji at this, and he dove again as I prepared another arrow. However, the soldier got around Seiji, and I felt the hand-guard on my armor be split and the blade on the side drove into my skin.  
  
I gave a cry of pain as I saw the blood coming, pulling my hand away as quickly as I could, but my action had been too instinctive and the bow had been knocked away.  
  
Seiji was soon behind the soldier as it prepared to strike at me while I was unarmed. His sword found its way through the armor, through to the other side, and the soldier staggered before smoke came from the armor before it vanished.  
  
There were no words as Touma and I shed our armor, back in our street clothes. Both of us were breathing heavily, and Seiji was eying my hand. He motioned me along as we went back into the room, the pain still throbbing in my hand. I tried my best to ignore it for now. I would bandage it later.  
  
"We're fine, Grandfather," Seiji murmured as my mother and his grandfather came to the door from the room where they'd set up the table for tea.   
  
My mother hardly looked convinced, her eyes wide as she hurried over to me, trying to get a look at my hand, but I hid it from her view for the moment. I didn't want her fussing over me as though I were a small boy.  
  
"Touma! We heard fighting, but Date-san said that we couldn't do anything!" I could tell form her voice that she had hated the idea of not being able to do anything while I was engaged in a fight.  
  
"He was right," I murmured quietly, sighing a little. I really wished she wouldn't worry so about me!  
  
"What happened?" the old man then asked, looking at both Seiji and I.  
  
Seiji then said, in explaination, "One of the Empire's minions attacked us, but Hashiba-san--"  
  
"Touma," I offered quietly, smiling a bit as the blonde knelt down and motioned for me to show him my hand's wound. I complied and let the cut revealed. My mother gasped at the sight of it, but I was more interested in what Seiji was doing.  
  
"But Touma-san and I held him off," Seiji finished. He then reached out a hand of his, and I felt the glow of the Yoroi no Korin as my hand healed itself once his fingers went over the cut gently.  
  
"The bond is forming," I heard Seiji's grandfather say to my mother, and I saw the old man smiling gently as he began to motion my still worried mother into another room. "They'll be closer than they could ever know."  
  
A moment later, the two had left, and Seiji looked at me. He then, chuckling as he repeated his grandfather's words, spoke to me with a smile.  
  
"Well, if we're to be closer than we 'could ever know,' I suppose we should get to know each other. Still up for some tea?"  
  
"That sounds fine with me, Date-san."  
  
"Call me Seiji."  
  
"Alright, Seiji-san." 


End file.
